Knife crime strategy needs to focus on stopping supply as well as possession, says policing minister

Policing minister: focus needs to be on stopping supply of knives as well as possession

Policing minister Diana Johnson has defended government plans to increase sentences for those involved in knife offences amid a crisis in prison capacity in England and Wales, and said that the government needs to focus not just on possession of knives by young people, but on their supply.

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain Johnson said “There is not one thing that you can do to solve this problem with knives” adding “We’re going after the suppliers.”

Johnson said:

In the past, there’s been this focus on possession of knives, and that’s absolutely right, but we also now need to focus on the supply of knives, particularly to under-18s, and that’s why we’re putting the sentences up.

And we’re also putting forward a number of other requirements around online sales where there’s bulk purchasing or suspicious purchasing that has to be reported into the police.

Johnson said the government also needed to do “preventative work”, saying:

You need to get alongside those young people who are on the verge of getting involved in knife crime, and put the support in. They need to understand that carrying a knife is not about protecting yourself. We’re going to set up prevention partnerships, identifying those young people most at risk and putting in the support that they need.

Key events

Policing minister Diane Johnson said this morning that the UK would “play our part” on security guarantees for Ukraine.

Refraining from directly criticising US president Donald Trump, who claimed that Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in 2022, several years after a previous Russian military campaign in 2014 illegally annexed Crimea, “should never have started” the war, Johnson said Britain was clear that Russia’s invasion had been “an act of war against a sovereign state.”

She told listeners of Times Radio:

We’ve also been very clear to say that Ukraine has to be part of any negotiations and yesterday the secretary of state Marco Rubio was saying that European countries and of course Ukraine has to be part of any negotiations. So I think the British position on this is very clear.

The Conservative shadow defence secretary, Mark Francois, has also been on the airwaves talking about Ukraine. He told viewers of GB News:

These negotiations should involve the Ukrainians, they should not be excluded.

They clearly were not in the room and after everything that Ukraine has been through, it’s almost exactly three years now since the invasion, it’s not right to have negotiations about the future of their country above their head.

They should be in the room, not least because any settlement that might be agreed between Trump and Putin isn’t going to work unless the Ukrainians are on board.

We in the opposition would be open minded about the potential of deploying some British troops, but you need to know how many, where, for how long and what exactly is the mission?

It would depend how many you were deploying, and how often you were rotating them; it would all depend on the structure and nature of the deal, and then what other countries wanted to contribute.

My colleague Jakub Krupa is covering the latest developments in the Trump-Putin Ukraine peace plan over on our Europe live blog.

The average UK house price increased by 4.6% to £268,000 in the 12 months to December 2024, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, PA Media reports.

Average house prices increased in England to £291,000 (4.3% annual growth), in Wales to £208,000 (3.0%) and in Scotland to £189,000 (6.9%), in the 12 months to December 2024. The average house price for Northern Ireland was £183,000.

Ed Davey: Labour making misery of the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis ‘drag on’

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said that the Labour government’s policies are causing the cost of living crisis started under the Conservatives to “drag on”.

Reaction to the rise in inflation, Davey said:

The chancellor’s misguided policies are putting us at risk of a new era of stagflation. The economy still isn’t growing, and now people are being hit in their pockets too.

The Conservative government plunged Britain into a cost of living crisis, and Labour’s failures are just making the misery drag on and on.

The government urgently needs to change course and take real action to get our economy growing strongly and bring down the cost of living, starting by cancelling their disastrous jobs tax and securing a much better trade deal with Europe.

Policing minister: lack of capacity in prisons in England and Wales left by previous government is ‘disgrace’

Policing minister Diana Johnson also appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, where she described the prison situation in England and Wales that the Labour government inherited from Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government as a “disgrace”.

Johnson was challenged over plans to increase sentences for those supplying knives, and was asked “You are talking about quadrupling sentences for selling knives to under-18s. At the same time, our prisons [in England and Wales] are literally full to bursting, and your own sentencing review warned against kneejerk decisions to issue longer sentences. Are you falling into the same trap?”

The minister told listeners:

Well, look, we inherited a terrible situation from the previous government, and their failure to make sure that sufficient prison places were built. It is a disgrace. And unfortunately, that’s the inheritance we had.

The lord chancellor had to take some really difficult decisions because of that. We are committed, obviously, to building the 14,000 additional places that we need. That’s coming online.

But what I would say is, I’m not going to, as the Police Minister, stop making the case for those individual offences where we need to have stiff penalties attached, and selling knives to under 18-year-olds, we need to increase [the sentence] from six months to two years to show the severity of how we regard that. That has to be acknowledged as something that is very wrong.

Yesterday, David Gauke published the interim findings of his sentencing guidelines review, which found successive governments’ overreliance on prison sentences and desire to seem “tough on crime” has driven the justice system in England and Wales to the brink of collapse.

Policing minister: focus needs to be on stopping supply of knives as well as possession

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain Johnson said “There is not one thing that you can do to solve this problem with knives” adding “We’re going after the suppliers.”

Johnson said:

In the past, there’s been this focus on possession of knives, and that’s absolutely right, but we also now need to focus on the supply of knives, particularly to under-18s, and that’s why we’re putting the sentences up.

And we’re also putting forward a number of other requirements around online sales where there’s bulk purchasing or suspicious purchasing that has to be reported into the police.

Johnson said the government also needed to do “preventative work”, saying:

You need to get alongside those young people who are on the verge of getting involved in knife crime, and put the support in. They need to understand that carrying a knife is not about protecting yourself. We’re going to set up prevention partnerships, identifying those young people most at risk and putting in the support that they need.

Minister: Rising inflation figures ‘bump in the road’ after ’14 years of economic stagnation’

Policing minister Diana Johnson has described the rising inflation figures as a “bump in the road”.

Speaking on Sky News, she said:

That figure going up clearly shows there is a bump in the road. I’m going to say to you that we’ve only been in power seven months. We’ve had 14 years of economic stagnation, so I think there’s obviously work that’s under way with the Chancellor, but I know that the IMF and the OECD are saying that we’re going to have the fastest-growing economy in Europe, so a bump in the road, and I think the Bank of England have recognised that yesterday.

Figures released yesterday showed that annual growth in real-terms pay, after taking into account inflation, was 3.4%, the highest level since 2021.

Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride repeated his phrase that Rachel Reeves is “out of her depth, and we’re all paying the price”, saying:

Today’s figures mean further pain for family finances – and it’s thanks to the Labour chancellor’s record tax hikes and inflation-busting pay rises.

Labour were warned that their tax spending and borrowing spree would drive up inflation. It means higher prices in the shops and interest rates staying higher for longer, causing mortgage misery for millions.

This chancellor is out of her depth, and we’re all paying the price.

UK inflation has mostly been on a downward trajectory since hitting a peak of 11.1% in October 2022, just at the point where the short-lived Liz Truss administration was being replaced by Rishi Sunak in government.

UK inflation rises to 3% with plane fares, food costs and private school fees all factors

Phillip Inman

UK inflation accelerated faster than expected at the start of this year, cutting the chance of an interest rate cut next month.

The consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation rose to 3% in January, the Office for National Statistics reported, up from 2.5% in December.

The ONS said a jump in the cost of meat, bread and cereals pushed up food bills, while a jump in private school fees after the government’s withdrawal of a VAT exemption pushed up the cost of education services.

Airline tickets fell in price, but not as much as usual, and combined with a rise in fuel costs, pushed up the rate of inflation in the transport sector to its highest level since February 2023.

Read more from Phillip Inman here: UK inflation jumps to 3%, reducing odds of early interest rate cut

Welcome and open summary …

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling UK politics coverage for Wednesday. Here are the headlines …

The government has announced plans to increase sentences for people convicted of supplying knives to the under-18s. Policing minister Diane Johnson said “In the past, there’s been this focus on possession of knives, and that’s absolutely right, but we also now need to focus on the supply”
Transport, food costs and private school fees are among rising costs that have pushed UK inflation up to 3%, further reducing odds of an early interest rate cut
Senior lawyers have condemned the “venomous” and “deeply personal” attacks on the attorney general, Richard Hermer, saying they were causing “immense and untold damage” to society and the rule of law
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has admitted his party faces a significant challenge to win the next Holyrood elections after its popularity slumped in the polls
Elected politicians in Wales who deliberately lie could be forced from office under proposals suggested by the Welsh parliament standards committee
A vast majority of councils in England have signalled they will apply a maximum council tax increase of at least 4.99% this year